Workplace injuries are common in the United States, but people sometimes make the mistake of assuming that they only happen in “dangerous” professions. They think of things like construction, firefighting, police work, truck driving and manual labor.
But you just work in an office, where you spend a lot of your time sitting at a desk. Could you still get injured and need to seek workers’ comp benefits?
Injury risks still exist, even for workers who have office jobs
In any setting, there is always the risk of injury. For instance, office workers could get carpal tunnel syndrome from typing constantly, or they could suffer back injuries from sitting in chairs that are not ergonomic or supportive enough. These accumulated injuries can really take a toll on the body over time, even if there’s not one specific day on which you get injured.
Additionally, trip and fall risks are common and could lead to broken bones, head injuries, brain injuries and much more. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have listed the following as some of the major reasons for these fall accidents:
- Falling from an unstable chair while reaching
- Slipping on a floor that is wet, damp or dirty
- Tripping over a hazard like a loose rug, an electrical cord or an open drawer
- Falling while standing on something other than a ladder
- Slipping or tripping in semi-darkness because of inadequate lighting
These are just a handful of the hazards you may encounter any time that you walk through your office building. If you get injured on the job, you absolutely need to know about all of your rights to workers’ comp under modern labor laws.